Before and After Muhammad The First Millennium Refocused

64 | CHAPTER 3

First Millennium cultural traditions: Prophetic, scriptural, and exegetical phases

GREEK PHILOSOPHy

(ARISTOTELIANISM) CHRISTIANITy JUDAISM

750s Earliest Arabic versions of
Aristotle (Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ).

c. 782 Caliph Mahdī commis-
sions translation of Aristotle’s
Topics from Patriarch Timothy.

787 Seventh (and last) Oecu-

menical Council at Nicaea:

restoration of icons.

c. 800 Latest additions to

Babylonian Talmud.

early 9th century Dāwūd
al-Muqammas, philosopher.

830s Partial Arabic translation
of Plotinus and Proclus as Theo-
log y of Aristotle.

c. 830 Death of Theodore

Abū Qurra, Arabic Chalcedo-

nian theologian.

c. 870 Death of Kindī, first
major Arabic philosopher.

later 9th century Rise of

Karaite critics of rabbinism.